Onosa’i ma Fa’amalosi: Understanding the Cultural Wealth of a First-Generation Pacific Islander

For many rst-generation students, the transition into higher education and beyond is an arduous and challenging process that takes a toll on both their social and emotional wellness. Past literature that has analyzed the transition of rst-generation college students employ a de cit-based framework, focusing on areas in which students lack compared to areas where they excel, to investigate the effects of transition on wellness and educational outcomes (Engle, Bermeo, & O’Brien, 2006; Orbe, 2008; Reid & Moore, 2008; Stebleton, Soria, & Huesman, 2014). Although much research has been conducted to analyze the impact that transitioning to college (from high school) has on rst-generation college students, few of these scholarly pieces address the transition for rst-generation graduate students of color and its relation to health and wellness. In an effort to shed light on the experience of transitioning to graduate school for rst-generation students of color, this paper utilizes community cultural wealth frameworks (Rendón, Nora, & Kanagala, 2014; Yosso, 2005) to conceptualize and explore how the author draws from the multiple strengths of being a rst-generation Paci c Islander graduate student to ensure emotional and social wellness throughout their transition and socialization into a graduate program

The Undercurrents of Institutionalization: How Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) Navigate a Racialized Process to Promote Pacific Islander Student Success

Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) have played an integral role in transforming the ways higher education institutions in the United States and Pacific Islands serve Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students. Although scholarship on AANAPISIs has demonstrated how these institutions and programs have promoted AAPI student success, few have discussed how these programs and services are sustained beyond the federal grant’s tenure. Moreover, although the federal grant program is intended to serve both Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities, much of the empirical research has either used the AAPI panethnic label without considering the different educational experiences of Pacific Islanders from Asian Americans within these sites or overlooked how AANAPISIs have served Pacific Islander students specifically. To address these oversights in higher education research and discourse, this study documented how two AANAPISIs—one in California and the other in the Pacific Islands—with a targeted interest in Pacific Islander student success institutionalized aspects of their grant-funded programs and services.Using qualitative research methods within an embedded, multiple case study design, this study highlighted the various strategies employed at both AANAPISIs to help facilitate the process of institutionalization. More specifically, AANAPISI administrators were able to demonstrate the success of their programs, adjust institutional processes and practices to support their efforts, and build relationships with key stakeholders both within the institution and beyond. Although findings demonstrated a pathway to institutionalization, participants in the study also shared challenges they encountered in the process of garnering institutional investment to sustain AANAPISI efforts, demonstrating how the process of institutionalization is ultimately racialized. Moreover, these challenges varied significantly by site, illuminating the importance of considering contextual factors when navigating the process of institutionalization.Findings from this study offered effective strategies that can be leveraged to help move AANAPISIs toward institutionalization; however, this study also exemplified the ways in which higher education institutions operate as racialized organizations and the impact that this has on institutional processes that are often framed as race neutral. By bringing awareness to this reality, AANAPISI scholars and practitioners must reimagine efforts toward institutionalization that can challenge the centrality of whiteness in higher education and promote the success of students, like Pacific Islanders, who are often overlooked or made invisible

An Ethic of Care in Student Affairs: Humanizing Relationships and Asserting Cultural Values at an AANAPISI

As Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (AAPI) practitioners in higher education, we assert our cultural values to leverage important connections between members within the community. These values are centered on collective responsibility, demonstrating care for the community, offering respect, and acting with love. These values manifest through our daily interactions with others and in the spaces we occupy, whether it is in physical proximity or virtual settings. COVID-19, the unprecedented global health crisis that forced campus closures across the nation, along with tensions provoked by blatant racism, racial violence, and ongoing microaggressions, have reminded us that AAPIs are not immune to the injustices present in society. These environmental conditions have prompted negative self-perceptions, induced stressors, compromised physical and mental health, and destabilized income. Student affairs professionals have the potential to intervene, offering students guidance and support as they contemplate personal decisions (e.g., family health crisis, job loss, food and housing insecurities, unattended cultural practices) amidst these harrowing conditions. This article discusses how student affairs professionals at Mt. San Antonio College, an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander- Serving Institution, utilized their cultural values and employed creative strategies to demonstrate an ethic of care and responsibility for the student community amidst COVID-19 and the rise in violence toward Asian Americans